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The Story of Ikov

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A Mighty

A Mighty

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Hey Attila! As you requested, I have read this (long!) story. It was rather good for headcannon; you are an excellent writer :)

I agree with what you said about laws, namely that they shouldn't require being written down. Different people interpret law in a different way, and thus laws should evolve with time and distance. I think Armadyl would agree with that.

I especially enjoyed the interaction between Armadyl and Ikov. In the canon, Armadyl has said that he wishes gods to be guides instead as rulers, and I'd like to believe that Armadyl takes the time to personally get to know everyone serving under him. If they had any issues, they could go to him for guidance. Obviously, he would know some a lot better than others (like Ikov, who was a hero), but in general he should be willing and able to help.

One criticism I had of this is that it seems too mystic. I;m not sure if this is intentional, or a byproduct of it being essentially a retelling in the RS universe of a different story you wrote, but it seems too focused on spirits at times...
To those cursed by war and pest, Come into the light of Armadyl and rest. This is the law of Armadyl.

25-Dec-2015 22:03:25

AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

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Thanks, Mighty!

That's a fair criticism. It is a symptom of its source, but it's also a welcome one, since I think we seriously need some lore on spirits and sorcery - so why not tie it in to a newly developing faction?

26-Dec-2015 04:42:04 - Last edited on 26-Dec-2015 17:36:17 by AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

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Hey, A Mighty,

I thought about this some more - it's not that I simply want to tie spirit and Armadyl's faction to kill two birds with one stone, but I think these two topics need to go together. This is especially apparent in the phrase 'the spirit of the law.' There are questions of what law is, what gives it its strength, what sustains its validity; these are, I think, best answered through an entire theory of spirits, e.g. the spirits of nations, etc.

26-Dec-2015 17:36:03

AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

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Hey, everyone,

While on vacation, I've given some more thoughts to spirits. More and more I'm thinking that a theory of magic, planar theory, and a theory of sorcery are utterly intertwined.

Maybe the best way to begin to understand spirits is to think of them as values - those invisible components of our lives that motivate our feelings, actions, and habits but which we hardly ever reflect on and probably couldn't explain if asked.

For example, someone might ask me: why did you write this long story?
I might respond: because I wanted to articulate my thoughts for myself about certain spiritual experiences, because I wanted to share some interesting ideas with my fellow lorehounds.
And then: why did you want those?
I might say: because for some reason I think doing so will make me happy.

Being happy is a value, maybe the ultimate value at work in our lives. Self-understanding and intellectual exchange are also values, subordinate to or contributing to the value of being happy. (I am ignoring 'moral values' because I think 'morality' and 'moral obligation,' as opposed to familial and political and religious obligations, are modern inventions and not helpful for understanding the ancient idea of spirits.)

06-Jan-2016 17:52:21

AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

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Now spirits are not just values for the individual. They are also shared. Shared values make a society or other social group what they are. For example, a small nation is united by the shared way of life of its members and - perhaps more importantly - the shared appreciation for the shared way of life. I say 'more importantly' because the shared appreciation - the shared value - keep the small nation together. The value elicits the feelings, commands the actions, and forms the habits that maintain the small nation and its way of life. Certainly the shared way of life must first exist if it is to be preserved, but unless it was valued it would not endure: changes in circumstances or perhaps mere curiosity about alternative ways of life would bring about its destruction.

This account of values, especially shared values, allows us to understand the meaning of phrases like 'the spirit of a nation.' The shared value, the spirit, reveals itself through the feelings experienced, actions performed, and habits kept by its members - feelings, action, and habits which preserve the nation - these, the effects of the spirit, in turn, make up the 'soul' of the nation.

I actually did a ton more thinking than this...but I'm not yet ready to write it all out. Hopefully this will come in time, here in part and perhaps also in the form of a new Planar Theory thread.

06-Jan-2016 17:52:40

AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

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- On Spirits, and acts in general -
Spirits are not creatures with individual bodies, subject to space and time, nor do they experience life or death. Sometimes a spirit is present in a world, and sometimes it is banished; they are invisible and immortal and known only by indirect means. Rarely do spirits reveal themselves in Gielinor, yet they may be found everywhere by one who knows how to look for them. Spirits are bearers of values; they elicit emotions in us, motivate our actions, and shape our habits; they guide all living things in the maintenance of their own existence, as well as all further activity.

We encounter spirits in four ways. First, whenever we act, we have the capacity to take notice of the reason for which we are acting, the value we are seeking to serve or to bring about; this value which motivates our act is an invisible manifestation of a spirit. Second, whenever we see another act in an understandable fashion, we may take note empathically of the value for which the other acts. Third, whenever we see any evidence of purposeful activity, e.g. actions, words, writing, tools, buildings, paths, etc., whether or not the activity is ongoing, we may inquire as to what values guide or guided it. Finally, in extraordinary circumstances, a spirit will take on a perceptible body - this often occurs in places of shadow; the shadow realm will be addressed more thoroughly elsewhere.

15-Jan-2016 18:39:48

AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

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For every spirit we encounter - whether in its ordinary, invisible manifestations or in an extraordinary, visible manifestation - we find ourselves in one of four possible relationships to it. First, we may find ourselves peacefully bound to it, such that it guides our acts, elicits our emotions, and gives us the power to act. Second, we may find ourselves bound to it and struggling with it, such that it guides our acts, elicits our emotions, and grants us power, but another spirit also guides us toward contrary acts, elicits contrary emotions, and grants us power for contrary acts; thus there is conflict within. Third, we may find ourselves unbound to, uninterested in, and unmoved by a spirit. Fourth, we may find our relationship to a spirit unclear, so that more time is required to discover what hold it may or may not have on us and what power it may or may not be granting us.

The foregoing suffices for understanding how spirits guide all activity: every act is undertaken for some reason, however obscurely or clearly known, and spirits bear these reasons and - this amounts the same thing - bestow upon us the power to undertake those acts. Power here does not refer to an all-purpose means for undertaking any acts whatsoever, but the insight and motivation to undertake the suggested acts, which often brings with it insight into appropriate means for doing so.

15-Jan-2016 18:40:17

AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

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To recap, spirits draw, with varying degrees of strength, our attention, in varying amounts; they elicit in us certain feelings, and they suggest to us certain acts. When we attend to them and act according to them, we bind ourselves to them. Doing so repeatedly increases the strength of these bonds, which we experience as habits and which strengthen us in the service of certain values. There are many more details which could be added to this account, but they can wait for a more thorough treatment of sorcery. For now, I will propose one general conclusion, which I have called the Law of Sorcery: One submits to the spirit by which one acts. In other words, one is bound to the spirits which give one power.

15-Jan-2016 18:41:19

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